Republican Incumbent Logan Wilde won another term in the Utah State House of Representatives.
Logan Wilde defeated Democratic Chris Neville, a Park City resident for Utah House seat 53. Wilde says that with polling surveys before the election they expected the win. But they were surprised by the results of some of Utah’s propositions.
“We knew that Prop 2 was going to pass, medical marijuana. We knew that Medicaid expansion was going to pass." Wilde continued, "The one that took us by surprise was question 1. We thought it was going to pass with our polling, but it didn’t. The other one was on the redistricting. We thought there would be a little bit bigger margins there. It’s really tight. In fact, with the ballots coming in from Utah county we’re still not quite sure where it’s going to land.”
If Proposition 4 passes it would create an independent re-districting committee to draw congressional and state legislative districts. Wilde says that the proposition has some flaws.
“I think it’s got some sound principles. Implementing them is going to be kind of the interesting part." Wilde explained, "I look forward to looking with the groups to say, ‘ok where can we make this work?’ if it does pass and ‘what are some of the things that we need to change?’ I have talked to some of the clerks that are around the communities. They are concerned that they will not have enough time to do the county redistricting. That time frame is a very short window, its about four months. If we add something else in it that has to have public review that means that those windows become very narrow. How long its going to take to get those maps to the public so that we can have the next election cycle in place by January 1?”
Seat 53 is made up of 5 counties including Daggett, parts of Duchesne, Morgan, Rich and parts of Summit county. Wilde says that he anticipates the boundaries that split Summit County will be redrawn.
“I anticipate some of it changing." Wilde said, "How the boundaries are drawn its going to be interesting. Because I think the next election cycle will be 40,000 people in my district 40-44,000 people. That’s going to make my district a whole lot larger. Summit County, the population that I see is not the population growing the number of homes is growing due to secondary homes faster than the population. You’re still going to have to have this bigger and bigger area. The areas that are having the big population growth are Utah county, southern Salt Lake county. Is that going to shift everything? I don’t know. I think until the legislative research people put the maps together it’ll be an interesting process.”
Wilde says during his next term he looks forward to working on housing affordability and sustaining agriculture.
“I am really looking forward to working on housing still." Wilde continued, "Housing affordability is something that I’ve taken on. I really look forward to working with some of my colleagues in that area, both Republicans and Democrats. I really am looking forward to trying to sustain agriculture. I think we’re seeing a lot more—I know Park City had Treasure Mountain and they’re looking for open space. I see agriculture as a way of trying to sustain that open space as well. I look forward to those kind of projects coming forward.”
The LeRay McAllister Critical Land Conservation Fund was founded in 1999. The fund is meant to be used for conservation projects throughout the state. In the 2018 legislative session the remaining funds were cut. Wilde says he’d support efforts to bring the fund back.
“This year we’re looking to put it back where it was." Wilde explained, "So that people that understand what LeRay McAllister is, how it benefits communities, can actually understand why it’s there and how important it can be. I tried to put another $400,000 into it last year I think, but that got voted out by the committee.”
